How Lockheed Martin Inspired Their Peers to Fight Hunger This Summer

Since 2014, as the school year comes towards an end, members of different local Lockheed Martin divisions have been coming together to fight hunger for kids and their families over the summer months by starting a virtual food drive.

As part of their corporate-wide, annual food drive event, Mission: Engage, Nourish, Unite (M.E.N.U.), Lockheed Martin employees all across the nation compete to fundraise for causes close to their hearts. For the past few years, the food bank has been very fortunate to be a local beneficiary to these efforts from two different Lockheed locations!

Each year, Lockheed’s Sandlake Mission and Fire Control (MFC) location splits into teams by department and competes against each other, while Lockheed’s Lake Underhill location rallies together to raise more money. Over the past few years of getting to know so many participants in both locations, it’s been fun and enlightening to watch the competition on a regional and local level, but one thing is for sure: together they have made a huge impact for local kids and their families.

When I think of Lockheed, two things come to mind: progress and innovation – and their virtual food drives are no different! This year, their combined drives raised nearly $8,000 more than the previous year, and they continue to think of new ways to beat the prior year’s record.

To shake things up this time, Lockheed Martin MFC added employee incentives to their virtual food drive. For a donation, you could pie a manager in the face. Let’s just say, there were a lot of people who couldn’t pass that opportunity up, and it was far more successful than they imagined. Who knows, perhaps you can initiate Operation Pie in the Face at your own workplace to raise money!

Both locations wrapped fundraising around events like golf tournaments and raffles to really engage their team members to get behind the cause. They didn’t think kids should go hungry when school is out, and neither did their co-workers. Combined, all departments and locations raised nearly $30,000 this year alone.

If you are as inspired as I am by what Lockheed is doing to fight hunger, there is still time to start your own company-wide, virtual food drive, and make sure just because school is out, kids aren’t missing out on the meals they provided. Head on over to www.feedhopenow.org/summerhope to sign up today. Whether you raise $30 or $30,000, YOU are making an impact for your Central Florida neighbors in need.

Special thanks to everyone at Lockheed Martin for everything you do toward ending hunger in Central Florida. It takes the generosity of Hunger Heroes like you to create change, and you are making a difference for kids, families, and seniors all over our community. Thank you.